Brazil should end 2024 with a primary deficit of 55.3 billion reais ($11.2 billion), the federal audit court (TCU) said, in the latest sign of skepticism that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government can meet its pledge to eliminate the fiscal deficit, Reuters reported. After Lula upped spending on social measures in his first full year in office, the market is worried his administration won't meet its fiscal goals. Despite falling interest rates, long-term future interest rates remain high, underlining market discomfort with the government's fiscal situation.

Colombia’s economy grew at its fastest pace in nine months in November, beating all forecasts and calming fears of a recession, Bloomberg News reported. The ISE economic activity index, a proxy for gross domestic product, rose 2.3% from a year earlier, the statistics agency reported Thursday. That was its first expansion in four months, and exceeded all 15 forecasts of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Agriculture, oil and mining, government services and the financial sector led the expansion, while manufacturing and construction contracted.

Bonds of Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA slumped further into distressed territory as investors question whether the Brazilian airline will be able to strike a deal with creditors, Bloomberg News reported. Dollar notes maturing in 2026 were down nearly 11 cents on the dollar to around 24 cents on Tuesday, according to Trace data, pushing the yield to 88%. It was the biggest decline in the US junk bond market Tuesday. The rout comes after local newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on Sunday the company is mulling filing for chapter 11 within a month.

Argentina's annual inflation rate ended 2023 at 211.4%, the highest since the early 1990s, official data showed on Thursday, propeling the embattled South American country's year rise in prices above Venezuela for the first time in decades, Reuters reported. Argentina's monthly inflation also hit 25.5% in December, below forecasts, after a sharp devaluation of the local peso by the new government of libertarian President Javier Milei, who came into office last month pledging to fix the economic crisis. The inflation data, the first involving a period since Milei took office on Dec.

Brazil's government submitted a bill to Congress on Wednesday that would modernize bankruptcy regulations, aiming to speed up proceedings by giving creditors more control over the process, Reuters reported. According to finance ministry official Marcos Pinto, Brazil's current regulations date to the 1980s, and the average bankruptcy process in the country lasts more than 11 years. With the changes, the government expects to cut that length in half while increasing recovery levels and reducing the cost of credit, Pinto added in a press release.

The parent company of Brazil’s Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA and Colombia’s Avianca is meeting creditors to kickstart negotiations in a bid to fix its balance sheet, Bloomberg News reported. Abra Group Ltd will host talks with representatives of its $1.5 billion bondholders in New York on Wednesday, the first step toward striking a comprehensive restructuring deal for the troubled low-cost airline group. Abra’s bondholders are working with financial adviser Houlihan Lokey Inc. and law firm Dechert LLP, while Abra hired Rothschild & Co., they said.

Argentina's international dollar bonds rose on Thursday after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff and the government reached an agreement that should unlock some $4.7 billion from the country's embattled loan program with the fund, Reuters reported. The agreement removes in the short-term the risk of Argentina falling behind on IMF repayments. "Getting the program back on track is positive," Goldman Sachs analyst Sergio Armella wrote in a note, adding the program had been "derailed" last year when the previous government missed economic targets set out in the program.

Brazil’s development bank is considering granting loans to the country’s airlines as part of a government plan aimed at alleviating financial pressures at Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, Azul SA and other carriers that have caused sharp increases in fares, Bloomberg News reported. BNDES, as the bank is known, is looking for options to help the airlines come up with sufficient collateral, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

Argentina's monthly inflation rate likely soared to 28% in December, which would be the highest since early 1990, driven by a sharp devaluation of the peso currency last month by the new government of libertarian President Javier Milei, Reuters reported. The median forecast from 20 local and foreign analysts polled by Reuters underscores the challenge facing the South American grains giant, with annual inflation set to top 200% for the year, one of the highest rates in the world.

Argentina is set to make a near $1 billion payment to foreign bondholders this week while the government of President Javier Milei continues talks with the International Monetary Fund as he seeks to restore investor confidence in the serial-defaulting nation, Bloomberg News reported. Interest on several hard-currency bonds comes due Tuesday, marking a major test for Milei just a month after he took office promising to overhaul South America’s second-largest economy.